Aaron Brooks spent the most formative days of his summer in Tokyo, helping former Penn State star David Taylor prepare for an eventual gold medal run in the summer Olympics.

It was an eye-opening experience for Brooks, who sees himself competing on an Olympic stage in the very near future. But for now, all of the 184-pounder's focus is on getting Penn State back on top of the collegiate wrestling world.

Considering the talent he spent most of his summer around, Brooks believes he’s a pretty good judge of potential at this point. He sees a lot of it in the Nittany Lion wrestling room. 

“I think this is the most talented team Penn State’s ever had,” Brooks said Monday at the team’s season-opening press conference. 

Returning individual national champions Roman Bravo-Young (133), Nick Lee (141), Carter Starocci (174) and Brooks (184) are back. All-American's Michael Beard (197) and Greg Kerkvliet (285) also return, and the Nittany Lions have added a fresh recruiting class and gotten some help from the transfer portal to try to improve on their runner-up finish to Iowa a year ago.

Brooks, who along with Bravo-Young went unbeaten last season, thinks this year’s group is closer to the one that earned the program its last NCAA title in 2019 than the one that couldn’t catch the Hawkeyes in March. 

The recipe for Penn State’s previous reign? Score lots of points.

“I think that’s one thing we as a team need to really focus on this year is just bonus points on top, transitioning from takedowns to back points,” Brooks said. “It makes a huge difference.”

Penn State’s 2019 roster scored bonus points in 45 percent of its matches. That number is down over the last two seasons by about nine points.

“If you’re trying to win big dual meets or win the national championships or Big Ten championships, you need bonus points,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. “And that’s something that we didn’t have a lot of last year, so hopefully our team is able to improve in that area.”

Only three Nittany Lions — Beau Bartlett, Greg Kerkvliet and Joe Lee — had more than one fall last year. Each had two.

Count veteran Nick Lee among those who think Penn State can more than double its bonus-point efforts, especially with a full season of training under their belts.

“We’re not planning to get second place,” Lee said. “We’ve got everybody back, too, and we’ve got some good young guys coming in and I think it’s exciting. You get a really competitive field like we did last year, and bringing everybody back, plus the new faces, I think it’s going to be more exciting for us and more exciting for the fans.”

Bravo-Young's Scare

Despite going through what he described as an “intense” and “scary” battle with MRSA that landed him in the hospital in July, Bravo-Young is no worse for wear and ready to begin the season at 100 percent. 

He won Big Tens before NCAAs last season and will plug back into his normal spot for what he believes will be his final collegiate season. 

Bravo-Young is grateful to have the chance after an offseason training cut on one of his legs got infected. It grew more serious in the days that followed and required antibiotics to prevent the infection from spreading and becoming potentially life-threatening.

“I think the scary part is just the severity, potential of MRSA or anything in that nature,” Sanderson said. “You get it in your joints and it’s very serious stuff. But he’s good to go. A guy like Roman is training year-round.”

The Battle At 125

If recent history is any indication how things will turn out for the Nittany Lions at 125 pounds, Sanderson will need to be patient.

Penn State has a handful of 125-pounders in the pipeline and all of them are eager to try to earn matches at a weight class that’s been tough to fill. The Nittany Lions haven’t had an All-American at the weight since Nico Megaludis won an NCAA title in his senior year and for the last five years, have flip-flopped lead-off men seemingly almost month-by-month.

Robert Howard, Brandon Meredith and Baylor Shunk all spent time at 125 a year ago and all are back to challenge for bouts. Joining them are Marco Vespa, who was on the roster but didn’t wrestle last year, and newcomers Jake Campbell and Gary Steen.

Howard led the group last year. He was 7-6 as a true freshman and qualified for the NCAA tournament, where he went 2-2.

“It’s definitely not, at this point like some of the other weights we have where we have established guys and there’s no question about who’s going and what the story’s gonna be there,” Sanderson said.

As a result, he didn’t rule out looking to the transfer portal for another option should Penn State need it.

“I think every program probably checks the transfer portal every day,” Sanderson said. “But you do what you can with who you have right now and we’ve got some kids that are working hard and are looking forward to competing.”

The New Guy 

Max Dean’s been out of the spotlight for quite a while. 

He was forced to sit out last year when Cornell and the rest of the Ivy League canceled the season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Dean entered the transfer portal, his brother, Gabe, called Cael Sanderson to gage his interest, and the rest is history.

Dean could slot in eventually at 197 for the Nittany Lions, but to do so, he’ll need to beat talented returning starter Michael Beard, who went 10-6 and finished seventh at the NCAA tournament in March. 

Either way, Sanderson likes the depth that Dean will provide, the push he’ll give Beard and potential Dean projects if he can bull his way into the lineup.

“Obviously, we’ve got some wrestling to do there,” Sanderson said. “We’ll see how things play out throughout the year, but we’re very confident and comfortable with both Max and Mike at this point.”